Learn to despise death. Seneca, Epistles 4.36.7-10

The basic human lesson, according to Seneca, is that we should not fear death. We must work early, beginning as children, to learn that death is something to face well rather than flee. Throughout our lives, we will be tempted to forget this lesson; there are some thoughts we can cultivate for these moments, thoughts that will return our minds to the proper perspective and allow us to die fearlessly, and so to live without surrendering our dignity or humanity.

Si in Parthia natus esset, arcum infans statim tenderet; si in Germania, protinus puer tenerum hastile vibraret; si avorum nostrorum temporibus fuisset, equitare et hostem comminus percutere didicisset. Haec singulis disciplina gentis suae suadet atque imperat. Quid ergo huic meditandum est? quod adversus omnia tela, quod adversus omne hostium genus bene facit, mortem contemnere, quae quin habeat aliquid in se terribile, ut et animos nostros quos in amorem sui natura formavit offendat, nemo dubitat; nec enim opus esset in id comparari et acui in quod instinctu quodam voluntario iremus, sicut feruntur omnes ad conservationem sui.

Nemo discit ut si necesse fuerit aequo animo in rosa iaceat, sed in hoc duratur, ut tormentis non summittat fidem, ut si necesse fuerit stans etiam aliquando saucius pro vallo pervigilet et ne pilo quidem incumbat, quia solet obrepere interim somnus in aliquod adminiculum reclinatis. Mors nullum habet incommodum; esse enim debet aliquid cuius sit incommodum. Quod si tanta cupiditas te longioris aevi tenet? cogita nihil eorum quae ab oculis abeunt et in rerum naturam, ex qua prodierunt ac mox processura sunt, reconduntur consumi: desinunt ista, non pereunt, et mors, quam pertimescimus ac recusamus, intermittit vitam, non eripit; veniet iterum qui nos in lucem reponat dies, quem multi recusarent nisi oblitos reduceret.

If a boy is born in Parthia, he learns to draw a bow at once, even before he can speak. In Germany, he would be shaking a baby spear. In the day and age of our grandparents here, he would learn to ride horseback and run the enemy through with a lance. The discipline of each different nation urges and commands these activities for each and every one of its members. What is a boy supposed to think, as he grows older with these lessons? The real lesson is that we despise death; this is our best defense against all arms, against every kind of enemy. Even though nobody doubts but that death holds within itself something awful, something that wounds the minds that nature gave us formed to love the life she carries, still we refuse to cower before it. There is no need for training or practice in cultivating our instinct for self-preservation: all are borne naturally to it, of their own volition.

Nobody learns how to lie at peace among the roses, as though this were a task requiring attention. Instead, each of us hardens himself against the temptation to betray faith when faced with torments. If occasion demands, we want to stand alert before the picket—though we be wounded, too—and not to prop ourselves up even with a javelin, as sleep often steals over those who rest on some external support. Death has nothing bad for us; so something else must be our source of suffering. But what if an overwhelming desire for even older age takes possession of you? Think then that none of those things which depart from the sight of our eyes is ever truly consumed: dead things merely return to the nature that produced them and shall soon reproduce them again. They pass away without perishing, and so the death that we fear and reject merely interrupts the life that it cannot remove. The day that returns us to the light of life shall dawn again, a day that many among us would refuse if it restored our memory as well as our vitality.